Pubdate: Mon, 01 Feb 2016 Source: Trentonian, The (NJ) Column: Passing the Joint Copyright: 2016 The Trentonian Contact: http://www.trentonian.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006 Author: Ed Forchion, NJWeedman.com For The Trentonian I WANT TO TAKE OVER THE FEDERAL COURTHOUSE IN TRENTON I'm passing a joint at The Joint and pondering while on pot. Through hazy eyes I watched FoxNews coverage of the armed takeover of a federal building in Oregon, feeling helpless. I've decided to do something about it here in Trenton. I think I'm going to take over the front steps of the Clarkson S. Fisher Federal Building and United States Courthouse located on the next block from The Joint on State Street. Ummm next week or the week after, hum, or when I get off this couch. (In my "Jay and Silent Bob" voice:) Dude... not in solidary with those fools in Oregon, but just the opposite. Puff, Puff-I wonder if our takeover would garner national exposure? I'm positive if I hold a bong (instead of a rifle) while having a press conference with Twinkies, blowing a little smoke about a Reefer Revolution and refusing to leave like those fools in Oregon, someone would notice... or not? I think I'd make the local press at least; maybe if I gave away Gov. Chris Christie Burgers some presidential press might bite. Perhaps TMZ would pick up on my declarations that I intend to stay here smoking this weed until Obama makes marijuana legal? Psych-its 4.20pm, I'm not doing that. I'm just being facetious to demonstrate what it sounds like to be flippant with a subject. That's for Chris Goldstein who was outraged that another journalist, Kathleen Hopkins of the Asbury Park Press, loaded a story about John Peditto's sentencing with intentional marijuana "puns." Chris wrote: "This is as serious as it gets. A man's liberty is on the line for growing some nontoxic, non-lethal plants. If Peditto lived in Washington, DC, he could have cultivated a six-plant cannabis garden and it would be perfectly legal." I absolutely do agree with Chris that it's a serious issue, but I've also gotten a lot of pun-loaded press over the years. When I went to prison the headline was "NJWEEDMAN Up in Smoke," but I wasn't offended. I come from the mind-set of any press is good press, so I'm glad John's case is turning into a cause celebre for cannabis, and if pun-loaded press coverage occurs, great. The usage of such a device in writing is not necessarily equatable with disparagement of the subject matter. (Google John Peditto.) John is a nonviolent 54-year-old father and first-time offender, and because of foolish jurors he's facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years in NJ state prison for growing 17 marijuana plants in the woods and maintaining a "manufacturing facility" (his home had fertilizers, soil, and gardening tools). In this day and age, I didn't think a jury would convict a clean-cut middleaged white guy, and neither did John. He tried to use the defense that the law was wrong, not him, hoping his jurors would nullify the law and say "not guilty." Instead, his jurors were fat government-fed idiots who I personally heard laughing in the jury room moments after condemning John to a cage for over a decade-for a plant. I'm forever grateful to my October 18, 2012, jury that found me not guilty when I was in fact guilty of violating the state's asinine marijuana laws. Had they found me guilty, I'd still be in state prison, and with the Brummage Act provisions, I'd have been condemned to at least 6 years of a 10-year sentence. Now I'm hoping one of my jurors will come to my Joint and smoke a joint with me. IMPORTANT NOTE: John's sentencing date has been changed once again. It's now January 29, 2016, at the Ocean County Courthouse (120 Hooper Ave., Toms River). Puff, puff. Now seriously, back to these TERRORISTS in Oregon. I don't consider people who do peaceful protests such as die-ins to be terrorists. I don't even consider the actions of the Black Panthers in the 1960s terroristic. They lawfully held weapons and insisted that the Constitution applied to Black people too. For the last 30 days, Ammon Bundy, the son of Clive Bundy-a radical racist with a history of threatening the Obama Administration-led an armed group in taking over a federal government building in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon. This isn't comparable to #blacklivesmatter protesters who've peacefully refused to leave government offices and were willing to be arrested, or peaceful citizens who do die-ins and refuse to move as a form of nonviolent protest. This group of nut-job white-supremacist conspiracy fools, these armed domestic terrorists, are different. They threaten violence, which is a whole different game, and now they are holed up begging for provisions to be sent while vowing to shoot it out with law enforcement authorities should they attempt to retake the building. And they fraudulently call themselves patriots. That's apparently what happened with one of the group's leaders as LaVoy Finicum was stopped by police on a trip to a local town meeting when he reportedly charged at police and reached for a gun from inside his coat. I consider myself a peaceful, proud, patriotic pothead, and I'm pondering why the local FBI branch doesn't get our building back from these terrorists. They must be removed ASAP so they don't inspire others. I've never rooted for the government to actually shoot it out with citizens, but that's what I'm hoping happens sooner rather than later in Oregon. For instance, when the Philadelphia Police were ordered by Mayor Goode to bomb the MOVE house on Osage Avenue in 1985, I watched in horror as 11 citizens were murdered, burned to death. (Yes, there were arms in the building.) To me Mayor Goode would forever be Mayor Evil Bastard. Likewise, when the ATF assaulted the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, I felt they unjustly murdered those 82 people (women/ kids) and should have waited them out. More recently, as I watch police murders across the country captured on phone cameras I constantly find myself saying, "Why didn't the police just wait them out?" Most of those police murders could have been averted if only the situation were given some time. The exception to my sentiment is the Nevada Bundy Ranch standoff of April 2014. In that instance the government waited them out-why? I don't know, but eventually they declined to do anything and as a result some of its members were emboldened, as we now see again in Oregon. I don't look at the Bundy bunch as anything other than a group of domestic terrorists. They aren't comparable to ISIS, the IRA, or even the KKK, but some websites have been calling them Yallqaeda, which I think is funny and appropriate. On June 8, 2014, after the federal government declined to end the standoff at the Bundy ranch, two of those fools who were emboldened by the lack of action, Jerad and Amanda Miller, declared, "This is the beginning of the revolution," by writing it on a paper pinned to one of the two Las Vegas police officers they murdered (along with a civilian) as they invaded and shot up a Walmart. They both died starting their Redneck Revolution, and now some of their brethren have taken up arms-(insurrection) in Oregon. In my opinion, had the authorities ended the Bundy ranch standoff those three people would at least still be alive (maybe the Millers would've died at the ranch), but this standoff in Oregon wouldn't be happening either. That's all speculation now, but Jerad Miller at the time was seen on CNN and FoxNews saying, "I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around or anything like that. I really don't want violence toward them, but if they're going to come bring violence to us, well, if that's the language they want to speak, we'll learn it." Instead, he cowardly killed two officers while they ate lunch. So it's ominous to hear these same Nevada fools in Oregon saying, "Nobody wants anything bad to happen on any side." (Young A le) Bundy had issued a list of demands and says his followers will not give in until the demands are met. "We're planning on staying here for years, absolutely. This is not a decision we've made at the last minute." Their YouTube rants are more threats and pleadings for supplies. Someone sent them dildos and these idiots posted a photo of them online. Which made me think back to "any coverage is good coverage." I just mailed them some joints along with fliers for my business. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom